Photograph by: Arlen Redekop
, Vancouver Sun

The city endorsed a report Monday night that would see Riverview restored in order to provide mental health care services, rehabilitation programs for addicts and serve as an acute care hospital for the region.

“We think there’s a role for some health care on this magnificent site,” Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said Tuesday. “As the sixth largest city in the province, it doesn’t make sense that we don’t have a hospital. We have real challenges getting to the New Westminster (hospital) site because of traffic.”

Coquitlam hired clinical psychologist Dr. John Higenbottam to set out its vision for the Riverview lands in a report entitled Into the Future: The Coquitlam Health Campus.

The report will be presented to BC Housing, which is acting on behalf of the province to gather ideas from British Columbians on what should happen to the site. A decision could be made within the year.

Higenbottam’s report noted an acute care hospital would provide quick access to emergency services for residents of Coquitlam and the surrounding communities, as well as outpatient services.

“This will eliminate the chronically severe overcrowding at Royal Columbian Hospital and complement the services provided to Tri-Cities residents by Eagle Ridge Hospital,” the report states.

It also recommended developing an education and training centre and dedicating a portion of the lands for public use and recreation.

Stewart said many of Riverview’s major buildings have deteriorated and some of them would need varying degrees of repair. He said the city’s plan would also require some new buildings, such as a purpose-built hospital, preferably in the North Lawn area.

The province would be asked to restore funding previously used for Riverview’s operational expenses. Although the hospital didn’t close until 2012, most patients were de-institutionalized in the 1980s and 1990s.

When the hospital was actively being downsized, the report notes, it had an annual operating budget of $100 million.

“Although a portion of the operating budget was transferred to the health authorities to develop and operate community residential and ‘tertiary’ mental health programs, the total amount transferred is considered to be significantly less than the hospital’s former operating budget,” the report says.

“Accordingly, the report recommends that the Ministry of Health determine the proportion of the former Riverview operating budget that was not used for Riverview replacement, and make that available as operating funding for the proposed specialized programs and services.”

While other communities might take a not-in-my-backyard approach to mental health and addiction services, Stewart said his community embraces them — and he believes Riverview is the perfect place to begin providing them again.

“De-institutionalization is a laudable goal but in this case the experts now recognize there is a role for institutions. When (residents with mental health issues) were deinstitutionalized, they weren’t supported in the community and some are going to need an institutional setting in their recovery,” said Stewart.

“We don’t have the NIMBY some communities face. We’ve embraced mental illness and the treatment of mental illness for a century. Our community embraces mental health and addiction services.”

• The Riverview Lands property was once the site of B.C.’s largest provincial psychiatric hospital, which opened in 1913 and officially closed in 2012. Most of the deinstitutionalization of residents occurred in the 1980s and 1990s.

• When Riverview first opened, it was called The Hospital for the Mind and subsequently renamed Essondale, in honour of Henry Esson Young, a provincial secretary who was instrumental in its creation.

• By the 1950s, the first effective drug treatments for schizophrenia and other major mood disorders became available, making it possible for many people to be discharged from psychiatric hospitals. In 1956, the patient population at Riverview was 5,500; by the early 1980s, it had dwindled to approximately 1,200.

• By 1998, the provincial mental health plan stated that Riverview should be closed within seven years and its services transferred to new, smaller community facilities that would be strategically located throughout the province.

• In 2000, the province created regional health authorities, which now manage mental health services.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.